Night Kissed (Chosen Vampire Slayer #1) - Mila Young Page 0,71

Usually, one destructive outburst was all I needed to set me back on an even keel for a while. But this time, I wasn’t so lucky. Instead of being relieved, I cultivated resentment. Who was he, a dead man, a walking corpse, to tell me what I could and couldn’t do?

Besides, the girl had clearly enjoyed herself. My mouth watered just thinking about her. Man, she was delicious. There was something to be said about forbidden fruits—they always turned out to be the sweetest. But then, why was Orion the one who got to determine what was and wasn’t forbidden? I shoved my hands into my pockets and glowered heavily as I marched down the hall of our house. I needed air.

Orion stepped out of the living room as I walked past. I should have just kept going, but instead I stopped. Veronica refused to leave my mind, along with Orion’s insistence she was his, and it would burn me up if I remained silent. “Listen, I don’t normally care what you do with your personal life and all that shit, but when it comes to Veronica—”

“She’s open to several men in her life,” he interrupted me.

I flinched, taken aback by his comment. “Say again? She said this to you, and you’re okay with sharing?”

Orion snorted. “That wasn’t what I said. But before you got all ballistic, I wanted you to know her opinion.”

I eyed him as he stood there, hands deep in the pockets of his black pants, and I searched his face for the truth. “It must have killed you to hear her say that.”

“I always get what I want, Seth. But I’m not a fucking monster and am open minded.” Tightness crowded around the corners of his lips. “Thought you should know and maybe we can try to mend whatever’s the hell’s going on between us.”

Again, I wasn’t sure where his sudden caring nature came from. Maybe guilt, or maybe in realizing that if he wanted Veronica, he might have to concede to what she wanted. For once I was lost for words.

Part of me respected Orion in that moment than I have in forever. Though, I fought the urge to burst out laughing to see the grand vampire leader showing a softer side because of a mortal. That was fascinating.

“Is that all?” I asked, struck by a strange awkwardness between us.

He nodded and turned down the hallway, putting distance between us.

Outside, I couldn’t come to terms with what Orion just dropped on me. I cruised along the sidewalk, going over it again and again.

I get he had been pissed that I claimed her first. The bastard didn’t want my sloppy seconds. I grinned wickedly at that. Except, V’s reveal stunned me as much as it clearly had Orion.

“Hey!” The shout jerked me out of my funk, and I came to a stop on the sidewalk, looking around like I’d just snapped out of hypnosis. “Watch where you’re fucking going, asshole!”

“Who are you calling an asshole?!”

The voices filtered back to me from their origin point at the end of an alley up ahead. I turned toward them out of a mix of curiosity and a need for distraction. The closer I got, the more voices I heard, until the words had devolved into a jumble of thickly layered interactions. Most of them were shouting, words ringing through the air like stray bullets from a gun.

“What don’t you get about this, man?” A young man stood blocking the mouth of the alley, poised in a fighting stance. “We don’t want you city rats around here anymore. Consider your welcome overstayed.” The last sentence was punctuated by cheers, clapping, a lone shrill whistle. His boys pulled in tight around him.

A fight was brewing. I craned my neck, peering through the blackness to try and get a look at the other side. They were bunched up at the alley’s dead end. Disadvantaged, maybe, but nothing close to defeated. I had seen the looks on their faces before from cornered animals making a desperate bid for freedom.

“And what don’t you get, assclown? We’re not going anywhere anytime soon!” The vamp on the far end had no discernible accent, but he moved with the practiced aggression of a city dweller, a man who made a habit of squaring off with rival gangs at least once a night. He was a foreigner, an out-of-towner. One of Orion’s enemies from the Seattle clan, I guessed.

I should have called him right then. Except this pricks